Close, but is it a cigar? 
“It’s highly unlikely that this population sailed from Australia or Indonesia to South America. Rather, this group likely trekked northward from their point of origin, venturing through China and Siberia.”
Considering we know they were a maritime people that sailed the open Pacific ocean at least as far as Easter Island, I would think that it would actually be more likely that a few of them sailed over to South America and got stranded than that they trekked all the way in the completely opposite direction of their usual migrations to go through Alaska.
Close, but is it a cigar?